Guess what? I was reading You Killed Wesley Payne and the main character, Dalton Rev, decided he wanted to talk to you guys. He stopped by The Brain Lair this morning with an introduction and a few rules.
So let's give a warm welcome to Dalton Rev!
::applause::
Hey. I’m Dalton Rev. Pretty much the main character in the new book You Killed Wesley Payne. You can call me Dalton. Or, you don’t really have to call me at all. Unless you need a problem solved. Then I bet you’ll get my digits somehow. Yeah, that’s what I do. Solve problems. Got a bully hassling you? Someone steal your Trig final? Happen to find a body wrapped in duct tape hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field? I can transfer to your school and take care of it. In and out. Nice and discreet. Of course, it’s going to cost you a fat packet of folding green. And by folding green, I mean cash money. Yeah, I’m a Private Dick. And here’s the three most important Private Dick rules:
The Three (3) Most Important Private Dick Rules:
1. Never let anyone mess with your ride. On the other hand, feel free to mess with theirs, especially if there’s a chance they’ll be chasing you in it later.
2. Avoid beautiful girls. Helping beautiful girls out of tight situations never comes to a good end. Continue to charge maximum fees and take lots of cold showers.
3. Tough guys are only as tough as you’re inclined to let them be.
4. Be nice to your mom.
5. If you’re going to carry a weapon, drive a scooter, smoke a cigar, wear a leather jacket, or have an unusual haircut—make sure it’s big and mean and intimidating. Especially the cigar.
You Killed Wesley Payne is a murder mystery. Who killed Wesley Payne? You did. Probably. Either way, I’m onto you. So don’t be surprised if there’s a Dalton-sized shadow looming up on your doorstep soon. Oh, yeah, those last two rules are free, this time.
Today, August 28, is Sean Beaudoin's birthday! Happy Birthday Sean!
My Thoughts I totally loved this book. I read it the day I received the ARC from Little, Brown on Facebook. Fade to Blue is not only the title, it tells the story of two characters in the book, Kenny Fade and Sophie Blue. The chapter titles were pretty cool because they go from 0 and count up, then there's a comic, and then it counts down to 0 again. All 3 stories are related. We follow Sophie as she tries to figure out what happened to her dad and why is that psycho ice cream truck always following her! If you like smart, funny reads loaded with pop culture, music references, and sarcasm this is your book. It also has virtual reality and comix!
About the Author 58% of the letters in Sean Beaudoin's name are vowels.
In ASCII binary code, his name is 01010011 01100101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01000010 01100101 01100001 01110101 01100100 01101111 01101001 01101110
Backwards, it's Naes Nioduaeb. In Pig Latin, it's Eansay Eaudoinbay.
Sean Beaudoin has used his B.A. in photography as a springboard into the following jobs: construction laborer, circus roustabout, busboy, used book buyer, hotel desk clerk, camp counselor, statue repairman (really), seller of jazz vinyl, and a nine-day stint as The World's Worst Telemarketer. He now resides mostly in Seattle, but also sometimes San Francisco, with his wife and daughter.
I also tend to list my history and traits in the third person, as if someone else were writing it for me. I love hot sauce and almonds and Turkish coffee. I hate the phrase "it is what it is." When people say that, I tend to respond, in a much deeper voice than I really have, "NO, IT ISN'T." I like vinyl and French movies and books about unhappy people from the Fifties. I'm not particularly crazy about police procedurals, ketchup, rap-metal, Julia Roberts, cell phones, or Sudoku.
Interview with Sean Beaudoin Was the Ice Cream Truck in Fade to Blue inspired by your friend's Pie Truck?
That's a funny question, but no. The ice cream truck was in the manuscript a good two years before Pie Truck reared its head on the rough and tumble streets of Alameda, CA. But Pie Truck is such an excellent, endearing, and tasty idea, that it may have to make an appearance in a future book.
I loved your advice to "Neither of These is Miles Davis", you understood her dilemma so well. Describe a situation where your personal space has been invaded. How did you "handle" it?
Hmmm. I was on a flight about two weeks ago where a family of six took up the entire row in front of me. They were, I will say, not a family of rigorous dieters. For some reason, the children, who were all in their teens, took turns sitting on Mom's lap. It seemed odd to me, since they appeared to be of the age where most teens wouldn't want to be caught dead anywhere near Mom in public, so I actually found it sort of sweet. Except for the fact that with both of them in one chair, and Mom having her seat back and tray table all the way reclined, they were pretty much sprawled right up in my business. Most odd, though, was when Dad decided to take his turn on Mom's lap. I am not making this up. Suddenly, there was six-hundred pounds of married bliss and suspect spatial awareness more or less announcing itself six inches from my face. At first I thought it was a joke, but they stayed that way a very long time, watching the in-flight movie. Mom rubbed Dad's back, while Dad stroked his beard, curled on her lap like a terrier. It was exceedingly weird. The way I handled it was to say nothing, marvel at their lack of self-consciousness, and bide my time for an opportunity to relate their behavior in an only marginally amusing interview response.
How did you come up with your book rating system? What book have you rated that you're glad you didn't write? (Don't need to give title, just a quick synopsis would be awesome)
I used to be extremely opinionated and even judgmental about what I thought good literature was. It was easy for me to toss around opinions and slam works I thought were inferior, derivative, cynically manipulative, or dishonest. Then I tried to write a book. Turns out, books are hard to write. My entire evaluation system changed drastically. It's very hard for me to be negative about almost any book now, because I can instantly relate to the struggle the author went through to get it on the page no matter what I feel about its merits personally. I also think with the internet it's far too tempting, and common, for people to be anonymously flippant, even cruel, about appraising someone else's work without realizing what went into it. At this point, if you've actually finished a novel, no matter what it's about, I'm more or less on your side.
That said, with almost 150,000 books published last year, there is a vast and mathematically unavoidable disparity in quality. Yeah, let's be honest, there's a lot of crap out there. So, my rating system is set up to kind of make a joke about the idea of standing in judgment, as well as being vulnerable to others' judgment, while still allowing me to talk about other books in a consistent and honest way. If someone finds that they share my taste or aesthetics, that's great, and they can decide if they want to read what I've reviewed or not. But, to answer your question even more obliquely, I'd have to say overall, about 70% of the time, I am impressed by other author's creativity, discipline, and talent.
Statue repairman, what?
I know, it was such a funky job. Essentially, I worked in a statuary that cast cement and marble garden and house sculpture, as well as bird feeders and faux-Rodin's and mini-Davids and such. Since it was sort of a shady operation, the statues would frequently come out of the molds missing snouts, fingers, arrows, wings, talons, and unseemly cherubic attributes. My job was to "repair" them, by re-attaching the lost appendages, or sort of cosmetically enhancing the flaws with a watery mixture of Quick-crete and paint. My job was also to dip them into this huge tub of noxious chemicals wearing shoulder-length rubber gloves (but no mask) so they looked aged when they came out. I figure I lost about 30 IQ points doing that. It was like breathing in huge gusts of deck stripper all day long. I frequently drove home in a weird, nauseated haze, humming along to static on the radio. But, it paid $10 an hour, and back then, that was really good money.
Sean has a new book coming out in Fall 2010 , You Killed Wesley Payne. From Sean:
You Killed Wesley Payne is Grease meets The Maltese Falcon. It's what would result if the DNA of The Road Warrior and Beverly Hills 90210 were spliced together and then grafted to Samuel L. Jackson's coccyx. It's cops and cliques. It's love and vice. It's a band called Pinker Casket who rocks so hard they may actually all be dead. And it's a pulp-noir murder mystery in which hard-boiled seventeen year old Dalton Rev must solve the mystery of "The Body" before it solves him.
My mailbox was pretty empty this week, boo. That's ok though, I have to catch up on my reading. If you want to see what's in other people's mailboxes, check out The Story Siren, she got 35 books this week!!!
Books I borrowed:
Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston
I love the cover of this book. It kinda reminds me of the Wicked Lovely books. I bought it for our school library and decided I should be the first to read it so I brought it home to read!!
You can check out a trailer for the book on Lesley's website.
Books I begged for:
Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin I totally loved this book. I read it the day I received the ARC from Little, Brown on Facebook. Fade to Blue is not only the title, it tells the story of two characters in the book, Kenny Fade and Sophie Blue. The chapter titles were pretty cool because they go from 0 and count up, then there's a comic, and then it counts down to 0 again. All 3 stories are related. We follow Sophie as she tries to figure out what happened to her dad and why is that psycho ice cream truck always following her! If you like smart, funny reads loaded with pop culture, music references, and sarcasm this is your book. It also has virtual reality and comix! What, what! I have to wait to write a full review because one of my former students snagged my ARC and ran off with it! Please stay tuned for more exciting information!
PS - I snagged the cover from Sean Beaudoin's Facebook fansite because I couldn't find one at my usual source!
You can call me Dalton. Or, you don’t really have to call me at all. Unless you need a problem solved. Then I bet you’ll get my digits somehow. Yeah, that’s what I do. Solve problems. Got a bully hassling you? Someone steal your Trig final? Happen to find a body wrapped in duct tape hanging from the goal posts at the end of the football field? I can transfer to your school and take care of it. In and out. Nice and discreet. Of course, it’s going to cost you a fat packet of folding green. And by folding green, I mean cash money. Yeah, I’m a Private Dick. And here’s the three most important Private Dick rules:
